Trying to Shove Hillary Aside (commentary by Marie Cocco)

[Apollo11]

Real Clear Politics - April 01, 2008

Trying to Shove Hillary Aside

By Marie Cocco

WASHINGTON -- Have you noticed something similar about those Barack Obama campaign surrogates and the media soothsayers who have started a drum-beat to force Hillary Clinton out of the Democratic presidential contest? Hint: They tend to share a certain anatomical attribute.

(...)

Since we're talking boy-talk here, we might as well get right into their rhetorical comfort zone: Obama now is ahead by a field goal in the third quarter. But the fourth quarter has yet to be played and who knows what the score will be at the end of regulation? So here's their plan, hatched in the locker room: Push Clinton off the field now so that Obama can take his early victory lap.

Obama denies that he is personally behind this strategy. But let's face it. The pronouncements by Sens. Patrick Leahy, D-Vt., and Chris Dodd, D-Conn., both big-name Obama supporters and superdelegates, that Clinton needs to limp away with her head held low looked terribly orchestrated.

Leahy was particularly odious when, after declaring Clinton had "no way" to win the nomination, he offered her a very warm seat. It happens to be one she already holds and it is, of course, comfortably below the glass ceiling. "Frankly, I feel that she would have a tremendous career in the Senate," Leahy declared.

(...)

Maybe it is true that Clinton has no realistic way to win the nomination. But Obama hasn't won it either -- and contrary to the myth his campaign has spun, Obama can't win without superdelegates to put him over the top.

Somehow the Obama campaign has come to believe that insulting Clinton is the same as beating her. It isn't. And insulting her supporters -- especially women and, in particular, working-class women, who have clung to her candidacy all these months -- isn't much of a general-election victory strategy. Women were 54 percent of the electorate in the presidential election of 2004. Without their support, Al Gore would not have won the popular vote in 2000 and John Kerry wouldn't have come so close in 2004. Women voters put Democrats in control of Congress in 2006.

So, the Obama campaign can continue trying to get its allies in the media and various party pooh-bahs to push Clinton aside early. Or Obama can welcome the fight -- and win it like a man.

www.realclearpolitics.com/articles/2008/04/the_men_try_to_shove_hillary_o.html

[GarbagemanLB]

1. field goal? More like 2 TDs with 1 minute to go.

[olkaz]

29. This isn't even really enough.

It's more like a 2 touchdown lead, possession of the ball, and most of the skill players on the other team are hurt.

"Since we're talking boy-talk here, we might as well get right into their rhetorical comfort zone: Obama now is ahead by a field goal in the third quarter."

That's really all I needed to read. It's nonsensical BS, with no basis in reality.

[Lucky 13]

2. I don't have a penis and I want to shove Hillary.

Not aside, necessarily. Just shove her.

[Voice for Peace]

13. LOL.. I know the feeling.

[bunnies]

3. Nice tactical use of the word "shove".

Very slick.

[Mooney]

4. Yup. It's the phallocracy holding Hillary Clinton back.

The possibility that she's not connecting with voters because she's a lousy candidate must not be considered.

[cali]

5. Pathetic sour grapes

And I surely wouldn't trade Pat for Hillary. He's many times the Senator, progressive and human being that she is. Furthermore, it's clear that he wasn't "sent out" to say anything. If he had been, he wouldn't have made his comments on VPR. Pat Leahy is a blunt guy, and I don't agree with him that Hill should drop out, but he has every right to an independent assessment of the race.

[flpoljunkie]

6. Cocco would do well to watch the entire clip of Hillary's "emotional" moment in NH. It is Hil who's

playing the "victim" card with her female base while slyly attempting to slip the shiv in Obama.

Don't talk to me about the "boys club" going after Hillary. As Bill Clinton might say, It's a "fairy tale."

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FIG1mJAdMv8

[Voice for Peace]

15. you know... I have never seen that whole clip.

My bs meter is registering very high. Thanks.

On edit: it reminds me SO much of a tv commercial.. those really sincere ones.
This looks to me like it was professionally coached.

[flpoljunkie]

19. Too bad, the media chose to ignore when she turned on a dime to attack Obama. As Hillary would say,

"Shame on them!"

[americanstranger]

7. Someone asked the question last night, and I'll ask it again:

Hillary Clinton: Fighter or Victim?

Just as Cocco asserts that Obama surrogates are saying one thing while Obama says another, I see that Clinton keeps up the 'fighter' rhetoric while her supporters push the 'victim' angle.

What's good for the goose, etc. Either Clinton abandons her strategic dichotomy, or her supporters should stop demanding that Obama abandon his. Fair's fair, right?

- as

[Saturday]

8. recommended. nt

[Connie_Corleone]

9. Talk about playing the gender card. GOOD GRIEF!!

Obama leads in most states won, most pledged delegates won, and more of the popular vote.

If people are saying that maybe Hillary should get the hell out of the race, it's NOT BECAUSE SHE'S A WOMAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

IT'S BECAUSE SHE IS LOSINGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If this was Obama, he would've been out of the race March 1st after losing 11 contests in a freakin' row!!

[anonymous171]

10. OMG RALLY THE WOMYN!

If only John Edwards had been a woman, maybe he wouldn't have been able to be shoved aside by the media.

[rodeodance]

11. I think it makes BO look weak when this happens.

[SeaLyons]

27. I agree, very weak...

kinda of like his bowling..:rofl:

[CTD]

12. Oh give me a break...

Are you trying to say logic and reason is the domain of men? I didn't think so. However, it is completely irrational and illogical to think there is *ANY* chance of Hillary becoming president this year.

It even appears Hillary knows it as her campaign's recent behavior seems to be more about damaging Obama to ensure that he'll lose this year preserving Hillary's ability to run one last time in 2012.

How anyone can, in good conscience, be a party to electing McCain is beyond me.

[ProSense]

14. Clinton's Real Choice

Clinton's Real Choice

By E. J. Dionne Jr.
Tuesday, April 1, 2008; Page A17

Chill out.

More specifically: "We're going to win this election, if we just chill out and let everybody have their say."

Thus, Bill Clinton's advice to Democrats who are gnashing their collective teeth over whether the extended struggle between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama will cause their party to lose an election it once seemed certain to win.

One person who took Clinton's advice was Obama, who went out of his way last weekend to defend his opponent's right to stay in the contest. That was a shrewd move, since the Clinton campaign is gifted at turning any effort to push her out into (1) a form of sexism, (2) a fiendish plot against her by Washington "insiders" and (3) a way of raising lots of money online.

In any event, the argument about ending the race now is miscast...

<...>

For the long run, it is neither sexism nor insiderism to say that unless she sweeps in Pennsylvania and also in primaries in places such as Indiana and North Carolina, the decision to end the race by dropping out will fall upon Clinton.

But there is a more immediate question facing her: As long as she is in the race, how will Clinton choose to win? The Clinton campaign needs to examine not what this fight has done to Obama but what it is doing to her.

more

For Hillary, the writing is on the wall. Just the facts:

[OzarkDem]

16. Excellent article, she nails the problem with the male Dem leaders

from article linked in OP.

"If it weren't so galling, it would be amusing to watch the Democratic men shuffling nervously in their television studio chairs, trying to conceal the audacity of their arrogance. For they have something in common besides their anatomy: It's Hillary Clinton. For nearly two decades, she's raised more money for more Democrats than anyone except, perhaps, Bill Clinton. She's certainly done more obligatory "Women-for-(Your Candidate's Name Here)" events than, say, the Obama girl on YouTube.

Now Clinton's methodical, dogged history of work for the Democratic Party is treated just like the methodical, dogged histories of so many women in the workplace: Having come this far she must not go too far. She must step aside to take the smaller office, with the lesser title and the lower pay to make room for the younger guy with the thinner resume. And please, would she just go quietly like a good girl?"

Home Run.

[emilyg]

17. K

[democrattotheend]

18. I've noticed much more insults being thrown at Obama's supporters

Maybe Hillary as a candidate has taken more heat, but in terms of attacks on supporters, Clinton surrogates are far worse. I have never heard an Obama operative or surrogate say anything insulting about Clinton's supporters. The night Obama won Wisconsin, a labor leader got up at a Clinton rally and attacked Obama's supporters in his introduction, calling us "latte-sipping, prius-driving, birkenstock wearing trust fund babies". The "pro-Obama media" never made much of that or called on Clinton to apologize for one of her surrogates insulting critical blocs of Democratic voters AT HER RALLY.

This is one of a number of examples of attacks on Obama's supporters by Clinton surrogates. One of her staff was recently quoted as saying something along the lines of "caucus states are made up of effete white liberals and Starbucks-sipping college kids", they've insulted voters in every state they have lost, and Clinton herself has dissed party activists. Are these people any less critical to the Democratic base than working class white women (who, according to the exit polls, actually voted for Bush in 2004)?

[Apollo11]

20. About the union leader who insulted Obama supporters

As I recall, the dude in question got booed by the audience at that Clinton rally. They were yelling at him to shut up and get off the stage. Nobody cheered or applauded his negative comments about Obama's supporters.

So from this we can conclude that Clinton supporters = classy! B-)

[democrattotheend]

31. I thought they were booing the Obama supporters

I watched the video and it sounded to me like they were booing the "latte-sipping, prius driving trust fund babies", not booing Buffenbarger for saying those things. But I could be wrong.

[Skittles]

21. I see it right here on DU

it is disgusting beyond belief

[cooolandrew]

22. Barack Obama "Hillary can stay in the race as long as she wants to"

[McCamy Taylor]

23. FDR won on the 3rd ballot. People should remember that fights are not unheard of nor fatal.

[Apollo11]

24. Kicking by popular demand

Because folks were saying they couldn't find this thread.

:kick:

[kevinmc]

25. Marie Cocco should be one of those random "Questioners" at Clinton's Town Hall's....

the ones with the planted questions .... she would be perfect.

[IndyHatedByBothSides]

26. So is Cocco saying we should vote for a vagina?

I thought the whole concept behind feminism was that women are more than just breasts and a vagina. Which is why I find the Clinton campaign's gender baiting a complete turn-off. (It also defies common sense, as proven by the Obama campaign's handling of race - you don't win votes by insulting the voter).

However, I also find the Clinton campaign's gender-baiting hypocritical after several of her high end donors - mostly guys if I recall correctly - attempted to gang up on Nancy Pelosi.

[SeaLyons]

28. K&R

:kick:

[dogday]

30. Since my choice will be whoever the Democratic Nominee is....

If Clinton is playing by the rules which says she can stay in, then she has put this much work and effort into her campaign, I say let her finish... Obama is ahead, there is no denying that and he has a strong following... Our rules say one candidate must have a certain amount to be the winner, then they should continue to campaign till it is over....